Seaweed Brain Forgets
by DazedDoxie
Summary: When Percy was kidnapped, the only name he remembered was Annabeth's. But what if he hadn't remembered her? What would have happened? Another installment to my "Cliche's Quest"! A bit of Preyna at the beginning, but it's a Percabeth story I promise!
1. He doesn't remember

**A/N This was a story before I even got a Fanfiction. I thought I lost it somewhere in my mess of files on my laptop, but I found it again! So... yay!**

* * *

**Percy POV**

Things had worked out pretty well for me. Considering the fact that just a few days ago I had no idea who I was, where I came from, or where I was supposed to go.

Maybe I should start at the beginning.

Hi, I'm Percy. I'd tell you my last name, but I don't remember it. About a week ago, I woke up in a dirty, burned-down house in the middle of nowhere with a wolf staring down at me. Lupa was her name. She told me that I was a demigod. Pretty freaky, right? To be honest, I didn't really have a problem with it. Some part of my subconscious must have already known this. Lupa trained me fora bit, and then sent me away. To where? I had no idea.

After three days of fighting for my life against some pretty wicked monsters trying to feed me poisonous Cheese N' Weiners, I found the place that I would soon come to know as Home.

Camp Jupiter.

At first things were pretty rough there. I was the newest loser to the Fifth Cohort. The only people who actually had faith in me were Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque, and the praetor. Her name is Reyna. Turns out I'd run her and her sister out of their home a few years back. Reyna told me that I'd come in there, and torched the place single-handedly. That was pretty hard to believe.

Then there was Hazel's brother, Nico di Angelo. I knew that kid, I _knew_ I knew that kid. If he knew me, he didn't let on. When I asked some of the other kids about Nico, they just said he was the creepy loner that popped in from time to time. Nobody really liked him because he was a son of Pluto like Hazel.

Oh yeah, my dad's Neptune, by the way. Which meant that I had some pretty sick water powers.

Back to the point. Not a day later me, Frank, and Hazel were off on a quest to Alaska to free Thanatos (a.k.a. Death) from his chains. Along the way we met up with some pretty strange people like Iris, and Fleecy. They ran this little hippy shop with some nasty food that you do _not_ want to eat.

Then there was the Amazons in Seattle. Their queen was actually Reyna's sister, Hylla.

And then there was that creepy Seer, Phineas who tortured harpies like Ella. Ella's a harpy with a serious case of book fever. She followed us around for a bit, but then we had her fly down to Camp for her own safety. Back to Phineas. I tricked him into drinking poison Gorgon's blood, while I pretended to drink the other vial that healed anything. It was possible it could heal my memory, but for now I had it strapped to my side.

After a lot of adventures, we freed Thanatos and returned to camp where I promptly saved everyone by returning the lost staff. In fact, I was made praetor for doing that. But even better, I got a girlfriend out of it. Who, you ask?

You guessed it. Reyna. She'd come up and planted a huge kiss on me just before I was lifted onto the shield and named praetor. Octavian didn't seem too happy about that. But who cares?

I realized that I didn't need my memory. I had it all right here at Camp Jupiter. What if I was just some nobody in my old life? Did I really want to go back to that?

Of course there was always the problem with Jason Grace, the dude who disappeared a few months before I showed up. He was one loose end that didn't get tied until today. Today, when we got that video scroll.

And now you're caught up. So back to the present...

* * *

The Greeks? I hadn't even realized there were Greek demigods. That Latino Elf guy seemed alright, but Reyna seemed worried. We sat in the Senate House, discussing the issue.

"They say they're peaceful, but just to be sure we should arm ourselves." She said.

"No, no, no! We can't let them come close!" Of course it was Octavian who stood and got mad, "Fire at will!" Then the scrawny little augur turned to me, "_You_," He pointed a bony finger at my chest, "How do we know you didn't call them here?" I glared at him.

"Why don't you go cut open a teddy bear and find out?" Reyna cracked a smile at me, "They say they're friendly. Why would they give us warning before attacking?"

"I'm with Percy," Reyna said, "Arm yourselves, but do not shoot." At that moment, Frank ran in looking really out of breath, like he'd just run here from Alaska. We almost had to.

"Th-they're here!" He huffed. Everyone started muttering to themselves as we filed out into the sunlight.

"Percy, stay to my right." Reyna said, and I did.

A shadow was cast over New Rome. A gleaming gold warship hovered over the city with a dragon head mast. I had to cover my eyes just to look up it was so bright. All the Romans gathered in a circle, leaving large hole in the center so that when the Greeks came out they'd be surrounded. A rope ladder fell down and the end hit the pavement with a _Slap!_ Four demigods filed down, one after the other.

The first one out was a blonde boy. Well built, with blue eyes and a scar on his upper lip. When he turned to face the crowd, everyone gasped and there were mutterings of _Jason. Jason Grace _all throughout the demigods. Huh, so this was the famous ex-praetor? Not bad, not bad.

Behind him were three other demigods. I recognized the Latino Elf from the scroll. Hazel gasped when she saw him. I racked my brain for the reason as to why he looked so familiar... then it hit me. Sammy Valdez. Shouldn't he be dead by now?

The girl standing beside Jason had choppy brown hair with feathers braided into it. She was pretty, in a weird way. She wore a white snowboarding jacket over an orange T-shirt. All of them were wearing the orange T-shirt. It looked like the one I was wearing when I got to camp. Weird...

The last demigod was a girl. She stood to the right of Jason, showing she was second in command. Her hair was honey blonde princess curls and she looked extremely athletic. She was tan, like she'd just spent a day on the beach. To me, she looked like a pretty basic California girl. Except for the eyes. Her eyes were gray, dark gray. Like storm clouds. Now this one was staring at me funny. I couldn't tell if she wanted to kill me, or if she wanted to kiss me. Just to be safe, I looked down at my feet.

Reyna nudged me, and the two of us stepped forward so that only ten feet stood between us and the group of Greeks.

"Jason Grace, former praetor of the Twelfth Legion. And these, your friends-" That was when something even weirder than a fifty foot golden warship looming over a city of demigods happened. The blonde girl suddenly burst forward from the group. She ran right past Jason, past Reyna, straight to me. For a moment there, I thought she was attacking me. But then she wrapped both her arms around my neck and hugged me.

"Thank the gods!" She cried. Then she pulled back to look at me, "Percy I can't believe it's you! You're ok!" Tears of happiness were welling in her eyes. Ok, I was officially confused.

"Annabeth..." Jason said in a warning tone, but she didn't listen.

Annabeth. That name rang a bell waaay back in my head, but I couldn't connect the face.

Then she started to slap my arm.

"Do you have any idea how worried we've been?! _Perseus Jackson _you completely disappear for eight months! What part of _Stay Put_ don't you understand?!" She yelled at me. Jackson? Perseus? Was that my name? Wow, no wonder I was so used to being the loser.

"Uh... sorry?" Her eyes blazed.

"Sorry?! You're sorry?! You had me and Sally worried _sick!" _

"Sally?" Oh crap, "Is she my girlfriend?" Reyna would not like this. Annabeth blinked in surprise.

"What? Ew, no. Sally's your mother! I-" Then realization dawned on her face, and her grey eyes widened. She took a step backwards, "You... you don't remember." She stated. For a second, I felt like I should hug her and tell her I'm sorry. But instead I just shook my head.

"Sorry." Her face went through a mix of emotions from confusion, to hatred, to anger, to sadness. Finally it settled on a sort of poker face. Uh oh, Reyna looked _mad_.

"So... this is Annabeth." Jason said awkwardly.

"Why don't we take this discussion to the Senate House?" Reyna suggested, her eyes as cold as coal, "Come."

* * *

Once we were all seated in the cool Senate House, Annabeth told us her story. She told us all about who I really was.

Surprise! Roman praetor is a Greek demigod!

Apparently I was pretty awesome. I'd returned Jup-er... Zeus's master bolt, recovered the Golden Fleece, held the weight of the sky, survived the Labyrinth, and led the rebellion against the Titan Kronos. Annabeth told us about how I'd disappeared shortly after. she didn't mention anything about how I knew her.

Then Jason went. He told us about how he'd woken up on a bus with no memory of anything. How they'd gone on a quest to save Hera, about the creepy giant spire thing coming out of the ground.

"And so we left the Wolf House..."

"Wait, the Wolf House?" I asked, "That can't be right. I would've seen you." Jason shook his head.

"No way, we were there months ago." Months?

"But I disappeared around the same time you did, we would have overlapped." Annabeth interrupted.

"You woke up a week ago, didn't you?" She clarified. I nodded, "Percy, you've been gone eight months." Eight. Eight months... but... what? "Hera put you to sleep for a few months while Jason finished his quest." She explained. My stomach knotted, and I suddenly felt like vomiting.

"I'm gonna take a walk." I said quietly and stalked out of the House.

"Percy?" Reyna and Annabeth's worried voices echoed after me, but I didn't stop.


	2. Nothing More

_Deep breaths, Percy, deep breaths._ I chanted that to myself as I strut towards the one place I knew nobody would be at this time of day: the Garden of Bacchus. Right now, most people were training or working, so the garden would be empty.

The sun was bright, but the grapevines latticed above me, making the light dot around on the ground. I took a seat on a stone bench near the center, where I was blocked by the many grapevines around me.

After a few moments, a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

"Reyna, I really don't..." I turned around to be confronted with grey eyes, not black, "Annabeth." I liked how her name sounded on my tongue, in a way I knew I shouldn't. The grey-eyed girl took a seat beside me on the bench. Not close to me, there was a good few feet of space between us.

"Percy-" She began, but I cut her off.

"Eight months." I said, "Eight months of my life are just... gone. And before that... I don't even remember before that!" Suddenly all of the pain and the anger that I'd been holding inside of me since I woke up came flooding back, "I can't remember Camp Half-Blood, I don't remember anything that I've done! I don't remember any of my friends, my family... for god's sakes Annabeth! I don't remember you!" She winced at that. I huffed, and stood up to pace around in front of her.

"I know that you know me. We were close, I can tell. Whether we were friends, best friends, boyfriend and girlfriend, cousins, I don't even know! Don't even pretend you don't know because I know you do!" I said when she opened her mouth to deny it. Sighing, I dropped down next to her again.

"I know I should remember you. If anything, I should remember _you. _I just... I just can't." She didn't say anything, "I _want_ to remember. So badly I want to remember you, Annabeth. You meant a lot to me, I know that." When I said that, her eyes glittered in the sunlight, like gemstones, or the very surface of water. But she composed herself quickly, and the sparkle left her eyes.

"In the past three days, you've accomplished almost as much as you did your first month as a demigod. That's something to be proud of, Seaweed Brain." My eyebrows pushed together in confusion.

"Seaweed Brain?" She cursed herself under her breath.

"Right, you don't know about that. I'd say forget about it, but..." I felt like I was standing on the wrong end of a pegasus, but I laughed anyways. Something about her brought that out in me. She smiled, "It's good to see you laugh again." Just like before, she wiped away any sign of emotion before it fully registered.

"Why do you keep doing that?" I whined.

"Doing what?" She knew what.

"Hiding your emotions." Annabeth brushed some hair behind her ear, and started fiddling with the necklace she was wearing. On it were ten beads, a golden ring, and a red coral pendant. She caught me staring.

"This?" She motioned towards the necklace, "Each year at Camp Half-Blood, the campers get a bead that represents the big event of that summer. This one, was when you arrived." She showed me the black one, with the trident on it, "And this one was when we went to the Sea of Monsters to get the Golden Fleece..." she pointed to the one with the pine tree with the fleece on it.

"We?" She bit her lip and nodded.

"Yeah, we. You, me, and your brother Tyson. That was the summer we met Reyna, actually. She was working at Circe's Spa..."

"Reyna told me I was alone." Annabeth's eyes turned hard, and cold like stone.

"Well she lied." But why?

"What about that bead?" I pointed to the one with the empire state building on it.

"That one was this summer. And these are the names of people who died." She pointed to the Greek lettering, "The ring was my dad's." She didn't go into detail.

"And the pendant?" Her fingers brushed lightly against the red coral pendant.

"That one is from you," She said slowly, "You found it in your father's palace, underwater." She hesitated, before speaking again, "You said that you wanted to thank me for being such a good friend." She finished softly.

"So... we were friends?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Mm-hm. Best friends."

"Nothing... more?" Her eyes turned on me again. They gave away nothing.

"Nothing more."


	3. Oh, great

**Annabeth's POV**

**"**You said _what?!"_ Piper said.

"I know! I know." My feet slapped against the deck of the Argo as I paced in front of Piper. The Roman's had invited us to stay for dinner. Since it wouldn't start for another hour or so, Piper and I had decided to have some girl time up on the ship. Jason didn't protest.

"Why would you tell him that?" Piper asked. I huffed.

"He's dating Reyna. Things between the Romans and the Greeks are already strained, how would it help if I stole the praetor's boyfriend?" Piper raised an eyebrow at me.

"That's not the only reason, is it?" I sighed, and flopped down beside her.

"He didn't remember me, Piper." I whispered dejectedly, "He had absolutely no idea who I was. Don't you think that if we were meant to end up together he would have had just the faintest idea of who I was? I mean, Jason didn't remember Reyna. If he had, you two wouldn't have ended up together. What if it's the same thing with me and Percy?" Piper frowned.

"Annabeth, you know that isn't true. Reyna and Jason and I are a completely different scenario. They weren't in love, you and Percy are."

"Not according to him." Piper groaned and shook me by my shoulders.

"Are you listening to yourself?! Your boyfriend is down there right now with some other girl. And where are you? Sulking on the deck of a floating warship, that's where. What do you think my mother is going to do to you when she finds out that her favorite couple split up? I really don't want to see that woman so don't give her an excuse to come down here!" We stared each other down.

"It's too late, Piper. I told him we're friends, and that's that." She shook her head.

"No way is that the end. You spent the last eight months in pure Hades over this guy, and you're just going to give up on him? What happened to Annabeth Chase, the girl who storms the Grand Canyon with her knife, demanding her boyfriend gets returned? Huh?" In the back of my mind, I knew she was right. I wasn't ready to admit it yet, though.

"Come on, Pipes. Dinner will be starting soon."

* * *

_Di immortals_ that clock is slow. Has it really only been five minutes?

Well I guess time really doesn't fly when you have to spend your meal sitting across from your ex and his new girlfriend while they laughed away about inside jokes, personal experiences, things I couldn't relate to anymore.

After a few minutes that scrawny kid, Octavian was it? He started to bad mouth our warship, and Leo got pretty miffed. The two of them went up so Leo could give him a tour of the ship about a half an hour ago. Percy's friends, Frank and Hazel (who were surprisingly pleasant, by the way) had left to go for a walk just a few minutes ago. That left me, and two couples. Someone just buy me a cat right now and save me the trouble later.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to Hedge." I lied and left the dinner table before someone suggested couples bingo and made me the caller.

* * *

**Percy POV**

Talk about awkward. The entire dinner I tried to be all happy and boyfriend-y towards Reyna, but I couldn't help but sneak a peek at Annabeth every, oh, three seconds. She just looked so sad. Were we really just friends? I mean, maybe I'd had a crush on her for a while but never gotten the guts to ask her out? Maybe I had and she turned me down? Maybe I was just stuck in the friend zone... Whatever it was, I'd better not bring it up just in case I say something wrong and make things even worse.

After dinner, Reyna and I walked back to the praetor houses together. Finally I could change out of this annoying toga!

"So Percy," Reyna started as I shrugged off the bed sheet around my shoulders, leaving me in my T-shirt and jeans, "Did Annabeth tell you how you know each other?"

"Yeah, she said we were best friends." Reyna arched an eyebrow, but didn't object.

"Do you remember her at all?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Not really. She's familiar, but I don't remember anything." Reyna nodded, and turned her watchful eye out onto the streets.

"Do you want to remember her?" Now that was a tough question. Did I? Absolutely. Did I want Reyna to know that? No! But she'd know I was lying the second I opened my mouth anyways.

"Yeah, I do." I said, "She knows things about me, and about my past..."

"Spare me," Reyna said softly. Oh, Hades. Her eyes narrowed, "What's that on your waist?" I looked down and realized I still had the vial of Gorgon's blood on me.

"Gorgon's blood." I tossed her the vial.

"The healing kind, or the deadly kind?" She asked. There was a weird look in her eyes... oh boy.

"I couldn't do that to you, Reyna." I said. Her eyes flashed up to mine.

"You already are, Percy. You just don't see it yet." Ouch.

Before I could attempt to fix things, a loud scream pierced the air. Reyna was out the door before I even had Riptide in my hand.

Outside, things were nuts! The warship was shooting the camp! That wasn't all, every roman demigod there was going after the Greek demigods! Even without weapons, they could cause some serious damage. I spotted Frank and Hazel fending off a load of them down the block, and... oh gods.

Annabeth.

Her, Jason, and the other girl named Piper were standing in a fountain. Piper was trying to calm down the crowd, but it just wasn't working. The old tug in my gut came, and the fountain overflowed, causing the Romans to be washed away. Annabeth (soaking wet, by the way) looked my way, and smiled.

How in Hades had I forgotten this girl?

Reyna sharply pulled me to the side.

"You know what happens next, don't you?" She asked, "You're leaving. I'm not."

"But..."

"No buts." She said and shoved something into my hand, "You have to choose. When you do, you'll know what to do with this." She pointed to my closed hand. Quickly, she pecked me one last time on the lips, "Now go." Another hand grasped my arm and started towing me towards the ship.

"Come on, Lover Boy." Annabeth growled. She swiftly pulled Octavian off of the ladder rope and fed him to the Romans. I looked back once just to be sure Frank and Hazel were ok. Hazel was riding off on Arion as Frank climbed up the ladder.

Within minutes, we were out of there.

Great, another quest.


	4. Filler Chapter

**A/N This is just a little tiny chapter to tide you over until tomorrow when I'll have access to my copy of MoA to write a full blown chapter to make up for this tiny crappy one. Tomorrow! I promise!**

* * *

**Percy POV**

"LEO!" One thing's for sure, I do not want to be on Annabeth's bad side. Poor Leo looked like he was about to wet his pants.

Not that I wasn't mad at him too. I mean he blasted my camp, we can't just let him off the hook.

"It wasn't my fault! It was like, I saw what I was doing, but I couldn't stop it!" What a load of schist. Although Annabeth was looking like she believed it. Her eyes got wide, and she brushed some of her soft, golden hair behind her ear. She started gnawing on her perfect lips...

Whoa, snap out of it.

"Just get us sailing," She said commanded him, "I'm going to go check on Jason and Piper." She turned to me, "Coach Hedge will show you three your rooms."

"Who's..." Suddenly a stout, chubby little faun came up from the lower decks shouting "DIE!"

"That's, Coach Hedge." Annabeth smirked, "Have fun!"

* * *

The old goat wasn't _that_ bad I guess. Although the lecture on not sneaking into each other's rooms was pretty awkward. Plus he kept swinging that bat at me...

"Now listen up, Jackson! I know you and Miss Chase have got something going on, but that doesn't mean you two can violate any rules!" He huffed. And cue the blush.

"We don't... I mean we're not... Annabeth isn't..." He just rolled his eyes.

"Still have the amnesia, I see. No matter, just NO FUNNY BUSINESS!" And with that awkwardness in the air, he left me and Frank in the hallway (Hazel had already gone to her room).

"Well then..."

"Uh..."

"See you at dinner!" And the two of us went out separate ways without going through the awkward conversation. That was one of the nice things about Frank; he didn't like awkwardness either.

* * *

During dinner, I stared sadly at the screens Leo had installed in the dining room. They were live video feeds of Camp Half-Blood. As I stared at the screens, I felt a warm and tingly feeling go through me. I knew this place, and I loved it. I just wish I could remember...

Annabeth was staring at me again. What was it with her? One second she's hugging me, then she hits me, then she ignores me, then we have a heart-to-heart conversation, and then she ignores me again. I'm getting mixed signals here! Ugh, girls...


	5. Stables with Annabeth

**A/N I am sooooooo sorry, I went totally blank on what to do next in this story. But I got it now, and you can expect much quicker updates. **

* * *

**Percy POV**

My dreams were weird... but good at the same time. There were strawberry fields, a big blue house, sneaky looking twins, something underwater...

Annabeth too. There was a lot of her. Her laughing, her slapping my arm, her calling my name...

"Percy!" I gasped and bolted up in my bed, very nearly hitting a shadowy figure standing over me. It stumbled into the moonlight, and I realized that it was Annabeth.

"What are you _doing_ in here?" I hissed, "It's the middle of the night! Do you want us to get in trouble?" I couldn't help the rush of blood to my cheeks. I had a major case of bed-head, morning breath, and there was a puddle of drool on my pillow. Not exactly a pleasant sight...

"You're turning 17 in a few months, don't tell me you're worried about getting grounded by Coach Hedge." She chuckled.

"Uh, have you seen his baseball bat." She rolled her silvery eyes and crossed her arms.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain, I want to show you something." And she had to show me at 3 in the morning?

"Am I allowed to brush my teeth first?" A small smirk graced her lips.

"You better! And why don't you comb your hair while you're at it?"

"Yes, _mom!" _

* * *

Some toothpaste and a hasty battle with my hair and the two of us were tiptoeing through the silent halls of the Argo II.

"Where are we going?" I whispered as she scurried along in front of me.

"To my favorite place aboard the ship." That narrows it down. This thing is huge! The two of us passed a big room filled with a bunch of wires and metal stuff. The engine room.

"Only me and Leo know how to work it, and just barely!" Annabeth said gleefully.

"How reassuring."

"Oh calm down, it's only threatened to explode once or twice." I didn't get the chance to respond because she pulled me down deeper into the ship.

Finally we halted to a stop in front of two wooden doors. With a quick push Annabeth shoved them open to reveal... stables. Did she have a horse or something? I walked in and she quickly shut the doors behind us. We stood in a fairly big room with big horse stables lining one wall. The floor had a big glass square on it, and I realized that it was actually the bottom of the ship.

"See-through hull?" I asked. Annabeth didn't answer, she brushed past me and spread a blanket out on top of the window.

"Sit with me," She said and went criss-cross onto the blanket. I took a seat beside her.

"Leo built this place because he thought the pegasi would like it. He didn't realize they'd rather fly, so this place is never occupied." She explained.

"How exactly would they get in here?" I doubted the horses would want to climb through the ship. Annabeth leaned down and tapped the glass with her finger.

"These are actually doors, sort of like a bomber, you know?" A chill ran up my spine.

"So we're sitting on _doors? _And what if they open?" Annabeth shrugged.

"They won't... probably. If they did we'd probably fall to our impending deaths." What a pleasure. I was getting confused, was this girl a genius or a nutcase?

"How fun," Annabeth smirked and rested her chin on her pulled up knees.

"Do you know why I like it here, Percy?" She asked. A slight patch of goosebumps came up on my arms when she said my name. I shook my head, and she sighed.

"I guess you wouldn't." She muttered, "It reminds me of... better times." She explained.

"A stable?" Annabeth nodded.

"Yep," She turned to look at me, "Back when we were twelve, you and I went on a quest together to find Zeus's master bolt. We had to spend one night in the back of a couple of poachers's truck." I wrinkled my nose.

"And that was better times... how exactly?" A small laugh escaped her lips.

"Because, it was the first time you and I really talked to each other. Before that you just irritated me." She ignored my rolling eyes, "But after that, we became friends." Her storm grey eyes stared into mine.

"I wish I remembered." I said softly. She nodded.

"Me too, Percy. You have no idea." I sensed double meaning to her words. There was this weird look in her eyes that she got every time she looked at me, including now. It looked like she was sad, mad, jealous, confused, hurt, and overly ecstatic all at once. It took me a minute, but I recognized the look.

It was love.

What I didn't know was whether it was friend love, or brotherly love, or family love, or couple love. I wasn't sure what kind I felt for her, but I was pretty sure it wasn't friendly.

"Annabeth?" I asked.

"Hm?" I paused for a second before asking her. This was bad, this was so bad. This was cheating on Reyna, this was crossing into dangerous territory that could make the rest of this trip extremely awkward if her answer was different than what I was hoping it would be.

I couldn't do it.

"Nothing." She blinked, longer this time. When her eyes re-opened they were just the tiniest bit shiny, as though she was about to cry.

For the rest of the night we just sat there, talking. She told me all about our adventures together. Annabeth told me about all of our quests, about my mom and stepdad, about Tyson, about my other friends at camp, and about the Second Titan War.

I must say, I'm awesome.

She was finishing off the story of the Titan War just as dawn light started to brighten the highway beneath us, "And then Tyson and I baked you a blue cupcake for your birthday," She said, "And when you and I were eating it, the other campers came out of the bushes and threw the two of us into the canoe lake!" She retold it with enthusiasm, but there was something in her facial expression that told me she was editing the story, "After that, you and I spent hours in an air bubble under the lake... planning ways to get back at the rest the campers." She finished. There was that look in her eyes again...

"Sounds like fun," I said. She nodded, and the tiniest smile came across her face.

"It was," I didn't notice that we were unconsciously leaning closer to each other.

"We hung out under the water a lot that summer," She said, "It sort of became our go-to place."

"I can imagine..." I said huskily. Her lips were about five inches away. I could feel her breath lightly flutter against my cheeks. She smelled nice, like lemon soap...

Her eyes fluttered shut as she leaned closer to me too. Three inches, two... one...

"There you guys... Whoa!" We jumped apart as Frank burst into the stables.

"Frank!" Annabeth said irritably. The poor guy looked down at his hands and shuffled his feet, cheeks as red as cherries.

"Er... sorry... we were just looking for you guys... You see you weren't in your rooms, and everyone thinks you got kidnapped or something..."

"We were here," I said, standing up awkwardly, "We're fine."

"Yeah... good..." Frank bit his lip, "Well, I'll just... go tell Hedge what you guys where doing... I mean not doing! I mean... bye!" Frank raced out of the stables faster than Reyna charging into battle. Annabeth looked at me with a flustered pink in her cheeks.

"We should go." She said, a hint of disappointment in her voice.


End file.
